89-foot-tall condo building nixed at beach

Tuesday

Oct 22, 2013 at 2:00 AM

HAMPTON — Zoning Board of Adjustment members said they were uncomfortable granting a variance that goes nearly 80 percent higher than the 50-foot limit in town and therefore denied Green and Co. Real Estate's proposal Thursday.

Nick B. Reid

HAMPTON — Zoning Board of Adjustment members said they were uncomfortable granting a variance that goes nearly 80 percent higher than the 50-foot limit in town and therefore denied Green and Co. Real Estate's proposal Thursday.

It was plodding and awkward, but the board eventually came to a valid vote that denied the proposal to build an 89-foot, 56-residential-unit building with two-bedroom condos in which each half is autonomous — the "lockout room" concept allows each side to be rented separately — and eight commercial spaces on the ground floor.

First there came a vote to deny the application, which was invalid as two members voted for it and three abstained. Then acting Chairman Bryan Provencal offered a motion to approve the application, which the other four members voted against.

That concluded the second three-hour meeting between the Greens and the ZBA, the first coming in August, when the Greens eventually took an offer to withdraw their application and come back with a revised one.

Rick Green, of Green and Co., said the offer the landowners had given developers is going to expire and they'll never be able to propose anything else on this exact site again. Instead, they said they'll be able to propose a substantially different building on half of the lot. Thursday's attempt had combined multiple lot owners' lands to create a uniquely large plot for Hampton Beach.

Board members seemed to agree that granting a variance that stretched so far beyond the ordinance made them uncomfortable.

The Planning Board is in the midst of a discussion to propose a warrant article for next year's Town Meeting that asks voters to increase the height limit at the heart of the beach, or even perhaps specifically on the A Block, where this project was proposed. The A Block burned years ago in a fire that wiped out the entire block and has remained vacant since, with the exception of Mrs. Mitchell's Gift Shop.

Provencal said he would be more apt to grant a variance like the one requested after the town weighs on in the height question.

"I think if we were in a time machine and we could come back in one year this would go through," he said.

But the Greens said it won't be possible to try to same concept next year.

Michael Green, of Green and Co., said even if the project were approved Thursday it would have been the summer of 2016 before units were actually being sold. That comes after more than two years of the lot being vacant because of the fire, he said, adding that it'll stay vacant even longer because of the denial.

Rick Green said his company's only other option will be to build on just the portion of the lot owned by John McKeon, while leaving Ray Blondeau's potion to sit with its rusted steel and cement remnants of days before the fire. Green said the Blondeau plot covers 48 feet of frontage closest to B Street and then stretches way back into what would have been the parking area.

The McKeon plot covers the rest of the frontage to Mrs. Mitchell's but is relatively shallow, creating a parking concern.

"Our only option would be to come in with a smaller property on the McKeon (lot)," Rick Green said. "You'd be left with 48-foot strip (the Blondeau portion) which would be useless" with "cement and metal on it for years to come."

He added of the proposed project: "If we don't do it now, it isn't going to happen. There isn't any postponing. This project will be over."

ZBA member Tom McGuirk said he liked the changes the company made since the August meeting, which "really made it jump one thousand times better," but, he said, he isn't comfortable going much over 75 feet.

ZBA member Ed St. Pierre agreed that the company "certainly took this building and put a suit and tie on it," but he said he didn't accept the argument the developers made saying the cost of project necessitates an extreme height.

"I don't feel comfortable 80 percent above the zoning regulations," St. Pierre said. "I'd love to see this go in front of the voters."

But Rick Green said by the time Town Meeting rolls around, this project will be an opportunity gone by.

"You're going to kill a project that would have been approved later on down the road and it'll never happen again," he said.

Advertise

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
seacoastonline.com ~ 111 New Hampshire Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service